USS Neil A. Armstrong II
The USS Neil A. Armstrong II is one of the two US Navy twains sent on the West Quarter Billion mission to Earth West 250,000,000, the other being the ''USS Eugene A. Cernan''.'' Their job was travel across the Long Earth and map, log and study it, as well as "plant the flag," as President Cowley put it. Another objective of the mission was to possibly find the lost ''USS Neil A. Armstrong I.The Long Mars - Chapter 5 Appearance The Armstrong II and the Cernan hold the record of the largest flying machine ever constructed.The Long Mars - Chapter 5 Their length is around a thousand feet from stem to stern and their hull have massive tail planes mounted with compact jet engines.The Long Mars - Chapter 5 Its envelope is emblazoned with the Stars and Stripes and its undersides are armoured with Kevlar and filled with observation decks, sensors and weapons.The Long Mars - Chapter 6The Long Mars - Chapter 42 Unlike the old designs, the crew compartment, still called 'gondola' by the crew, is inside the lift envelope and not suspended below the ship's body for streamlining reason. It has enough space to accomodate ninety crew and passengers and goes from the Captain's cabin, in the prow, to the wheelhouse. It has two decks, the upper one containing all the crew quarters and facilities and the lower one containing stores and life-support gear.The Long Mars - Chapter 6 Technical aspects If there is one thing that the early expeditions into the Long Earth taught humanity (like the Journey back in 2030), it's that you can't rely on every Earth to have Datum-like conditions. Therefore, the Armstrong''s gondola is built to endure extremes of temperature and pressure and can sustain its crew on recycled air and water for extended periods of time.The Long Mars - Chapter 6 Thanks to the Chinese advanced stepper technology it's equipped with, the ''Armstrong can cross fifteen million worlds in a week at its nominal speed.The Long Mars - Chapter 22 ''The Long War In 2040, when the twains of Operation Prodigal Son joined up to prepare their march on Valhalla, Admiral Hiram Davidson, impressed by Maggie Kauffman behaviour and the way she handled the situation at New Purity, was offered the command of the new semi-secret ''Armstrong II.The Long War - Chapter 62 The Long Mars The Armstrong II and the Cernan were launched on January 2045 from Capitol Square, Madison West 5, the new capital city of the US government.The Long Mars - Chapter 5 ]] On their way they retrieved the lost Armstrong I crew, discovered new Gaps and sampled and studied new lifeforms. It took them less than five months to reach their destination on May 24th, 2045.The Long Mars - Chapter 35 They came back to Datum Earth at the end of August and were sent back to Happy Landings to deal with the Next threat.The Long Mars - Chapter 41The Long Mars - Chapter 42 ''The Long Utopia In 2058, Sally Linsay used the catalogue compiled by the ''Armstrong II to find the homeworld of the traversers, Earth West 174,827,918.The Long Utopia - Chapter 43 Notable crew members Maggie Kauffman - Captain Nathan Boss - Executive Officer (XO) Joe Mackenzie - Chief Medical Officer Harry Ryan - Chief Engineer Gerry Hemingway Margarita Jha Jenny Reilly - Quartermaster Wu Yue-Sai Bill Feng Carl Jake Marjorie Snowy Notable passengers Douglas Black Phillip Shi-Mi References Site Navigation fr:USS_Neil_A._Armstrong_II Category:Twains Category:Stub Category:Vehicles Category:USLONGCOM Twains